On Nov. 2, Catholics around the world celebrate All Souls' Day. At Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, we remembered our deceased loved ones with a special liturgy at 4 PM at St. Andrew UCC. Katy Zatsick and another prominent member of our community co-presided at an inspirational liturgy that will become an annual celebration.

Our cantor led us in the responsorial psalm, the Litany of the Saints, in honor of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. This powerful prayer of remembrance named each deceased loved ones as part of the traditional Litany. We decorated the side altar with photos and momentos of our deceased loved ones.

At the shared homily, members of the community shared how their dearly beloved family, and friends blessed their lives.

MARY MCALEESE is one of the most
enthusiastic cheerleaders of Pope Francis due to his apparent, but yet
uncontested, advocacy of a return to Vatican II values. But the former President
has particular reasons to welcome the new Pope’s ascent to the Throne of St
Peter.

McAleese, it will be recalled has marked out a role for herself as
a Renaissance woman with a reforming book Quo Vadis which challenges Vatican
conservatism and argues for returning Mother church to the faithful, the laity
and, most subversive of all, to women. McAleese has armed herself with degrees
in canon law and theology before setting up a foundation and think-tank at her
Roscommon redoubt, from where she threatens to pursue her mission for church
reform. So challenging has McAleese been regarded by the guarantors of church
orthodoxy – as represented by such as Papal Nuncio, Charlie Brown – that rumours
of her being “delated” to Rome had spread in Irish church circles last year.

Mary’s first steps in religious academia came at the Milltown Institute,
the third level college of theology, philosophy and spirituality. As Irish
clerics will know, Milltown is the Irish academic centre of the Society of
Jesus, or Jesuits. McAleese then proceeded to the Gregorian Institute (The
Greg), in Rome where she studied for a doctrinal degree in canon law.

The Greg is the Jesuits’ oldest and most prestigious seat of learning.
Most recently, McAleese signed on in Boston College as the Burns Library
Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies. As Boston College puts it, “Boston College is
transmitting to maintaining and strengthening the Jesuit, Catholic mission of
the University, and especially its commitment to integrating intellectual,
personal ethical, and religious formation.”

Is the Pope a Catholic? A
more rhetorical question might be: Is Pope Francis a Jesuit? An even greater
cataclysm for the soldiers of orthodoxy who ruled with such Roman absolutism
under Pope Benny comes with the fantastic yet seriously regarded suggestion that
the new Jesuit Pope will appoint a female Cardinal in the not so distant future.
Apparently one does not need to have been an ordained priest to become a
Cardinal and the church has seen female Cardinals before (admittedly it is 800
years since such an appointment).

Pope Francis has been given to
remarking about the need to involve women in the Church, arguing recently that,
“The woman is essential for the Church. The new Pope knows he cannot yet
overcome the myriad obstacles to ordaining women priests b ut, ironically, he
could appoint a female Cardinal. The Spanish newspaper El Pais was the first to
report that Pope Francis was considering such an appointment and it was picked
up by the Catholic media in Italy and also the US. There, Phyllis Zagona, an
academic at Loyola University (another Jesuit College), posited the suggestion
as realistic. So, too, did Fr James Keenan (another Jesuit – the plot thickens!)
a moral theologian at Boston College, would you believe, proposed a list of
possible candidates, including Linda Hogan, a professor of Ecumenics at Trinity
College, Dublin. One feels sure that another female Irish academic with a CV
that would dwarf any other candidate, would also make any such
shortlist.

The Vatican has asked national bishops' conferences around the world to conduct a wide-ranging poll of Catholics asking for their opinions on church teachings on contraception, same-sex marriage and divorce.

Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Vatican's Synod of Bishops, asked the conferences to distribute the poll "immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received."

The poll, which comes in a questionnaire sent to national bishops' conferences globally in preparation for a Vatican synod on the family next October, is the first time the church's central hierarchy has asked for such input from grass-roots Catholics since at least the establishment of the synod system following the Second Vatican Council.

The upcoming synod, which Pope Francis announced earlier this month, is to be held Oct. 5-19, 2014, on the theme "Pastoral Challenges of the family in the context of evangelization....
"

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

"In
America's largest mainline protestant denomination, the
UnitedMethodistChurch,
pastors can be put on trial -- and even
lose their ordination -- simply for marrying a gay or lesbian
couple.But more
than 30 Methodist pastors in Pennsylvania have just
announced they'll do exactly that, courageously risking their careers by
co-officiating at a gay wedding next month.Their fate will ultimately be in the hands of their
local bishop, Peggy Johnson, who recently wrote that
she favors marriage equality.Now she has
an opportunity to send a powerful message by disregarding the church's immoral
and discriminatory rules and refusing to pursue formal charges against these
pastors.Let's show her that thousands of us are praying for her
to help demonstrate God's love for our gay and lesbian
neighbors.Sign
the petition to Bishop Johnson: Don't put pastors on trial for performing gay
weddings.These
Pennsylvania pastors are part of a growing movement of
United Methodists who are unwilling to obey the church's unjust
rules.Last
weekend, Bishop Melvin Talbert became the first-ever Methodist bishop to
publicly officiate at a same-sex wedding.A veteran
of the civil rights movement, he says it's time to begin practicing what he
calls "biblical obedience":"When I sat
at lunch counters during the civil rights movement, I had to commit myself to
non-violence as a way of life. I was prepared to offer my very life to draw
attention to the injustices that were occurring. When we were jailed, the people
in our communities came to our rescue. That is the very same response we need
today."If Bishop Peggy Johnson refuses to pursue charges
against the Pennsylvania pastors, it could be the beginning of the
end of anti-gay discrimination in the UnitedMethodistChurch.Sign
the petition.

Thanks!

-- Michael
and AaronP.S. Our
friends at the Reconciling Ministries Network are leading the fight for the full
inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United
Methodist Church. Visit
their website to learn more.

..."Simpkins figures she was arrested about 200 times — and her pimps, never. As for johns, by my back-of-envelope calculations, a john in Nashville has less than a 0.5 percent chance of being arrested. If there were more risk, fewer men would buy sex, and falling demand would force some pimps to find a new line of work.

In short, there are steps we can take that begin to chip away at the problem, but a starting point is greater empathy for women like Simpkins who were propelled into the vortex of the sex trade — and a recognition that the problem isn’t hopeless. To me, Simpkins encapsulates not hopelessness but the remarkable human capacity for resilience.

She has married and has two children, ages 4 and 6. The older one has just been accepted in a gifted program at school, and Simpkins couldn’t be more proud.

“I haven’t done a lot of things right in my life, but this is one thing I’m going to do right,” she said. “I’m going to be the world’s best mom.”

Bridget Mary's Response:

Excellent article by Nicholas Kristof in NY Times! The issue again is a human rights violation of women working in the sex industry and little or no prosecution of the pimps. Let's get real here and shut down the pimps! The blame does not go to the prostitutes. How about the clients and the pimps! Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com

Monday, October 28, 2013

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/bishops-need-rethink-understanding-religious-freedomPat Perriello..."What DeCosse highlights is that Catholic teaching since the Second Vatican Council is focused on the individual's freedom of conscience, which enables and even requires that individual to make his or her own personal moral decisions. The elevation of Pope Francis to the papacy now all but demands a change in the way the bishops are approaching this concept of religious liberty..."..."It is time for our bishops to stop trying to compel the entire country to follow their dictates. Lip service or a distorted notion of freedom of conscience is not sufficient. Bishops need to truly understand that individuals have a mind and a conscience that cannot be violated. Interfering with the freedom of others in order to attain the freedom you want for yourself and your truth as you define it is not good enough in the church of Francis.The saddest part of this misguided episode by the bishops is that it has put them on the wrong side of the health care issue. For years, the Catholic church has espoused the importance of universal health care coverage. They have advocated for health care as a right, not a privilege. Now they come down on the side of denying millions of Americans health insurance, just as the most extreme tea party members seek to do. What a shame."

Priest Miriam Picconi presides at wedding of cousins in upstate New York.

Today we celebrate world priesthood day in the Roman Catholic Church. As we express appreciation for our male priests, let us remember that the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement brings more than 165 women as spiritual equals in a renewed priestly ministry that is now at work serving open, inclusive, egalitarian communities in Europe, Canada, the United States and South America.